Three stores in three days

I enlisted the help of Pat, my wise grandmother and avid scrapbooker to journey with me to three local scrapbooking stores: her favorite, my favorite and a new find. One disappointed us, but the other two amazed. Here's our findings:

Angel's Scrapbook Garden in Mission Viejo, CA
Garden, not so much. Compost pile, maybe. This used to be Pat's favorite store, until we walked in and found half the paper gone, replaced by the new Zutter binding system. All very well and good if you are in the market for a Zutter. Sadly, we were not. Paper Selection: Poor. Very cheap, cheesy paper lines the walls. No Tinkering Inks, Basic Grey or anything good, really. I think Target might have a better selection (okay, maybe not that bad.) The one redeeming quality was that they had Tim Holtz's Grungeboard. The lady up front said they are trying to sell the store to a new owner. Let's hope the new owners rescue it and quick!
GRADE: C-

The Red Bee in Tustin, CA
The Red Bee was my favorite store. Not only is half the store scrapbooking, it also has knitting supplies and jewelry supplies, so it's like a mini Tall Mouse crafts. The whole right side of the store is all scrapbooking supplies, including Basic Grey, 7gypsies, K&Company, DCWV and any embellishment you can imagine. Large supply of clear acrylic stamps, but kinda pricey. Tons of workshops and make-and-takes. The paper is arranged by theme/subject with matching embellishments above it. Lots of themed paper (Disney, Harley, etc.) Visit this one and you won't be disappointed.
GRADE: B

The Scrapbook Oasis in Irvine, CA
The Scrapbook Oasis was the wild-card in the bunch, we had never been there. I found it online and wasn't disappointed. Tucked away in a little industrial center by the airport, it's a small store, but has big potential. They have a large selection of clear acrylic stamps from Autumn Leaves (my fave!) and Fontwerks, and a suprisingly larger paper selection for it being a small store. They have a lot of hard to find specialty papers like the Hambly Screenprint series, 7Gypsies and tons of Tim Holtz stuff. I was very impressed. They also have a great clearance section (or maybe they were just clearing out a lot of product to make room for new 2008 stuff). The best thing about a smaller store that is well-stocked and has a good buyer (like this one) is that they will have a lot of clearance items since they need to rotate their stock so often. This store has become my new favorite and the owner is super nice. They also have a huge class area where you can drop in for free crops anytime there's not a class. And speaking of classes, they have hosted Tim Holtz and Rhonna Farer workshops. So bummed I missed those!! Get in your car and drive here now. Wait, do it tomorrow since they are closed on Sundays. Bummer.
GRADE: A-